mentioned this gal, rachel, is she the person who's not here today, or when you were talking about the air quality, having your air quality tested, and the odd thing is now a different agency runs and maintains these pumps that are right beneath us now so it gets kind of complicated, but i think i've been exposed, i worked at the airport for 11 years and then worked here, i have this exposure to diesel smell that you don't notice it here, i do notice it frequently, and so when you mention this gal rachel. >> so, just before this, we had a meeting because we're working on hopefully building a study to look at exposures among women in the fire course to understand what they're exposed to, this raises a really interesting kind of unique sub

population within that, she is an environmental health scientist and has done a lot of work on measuring levels of chemicals in people and environments, so one study she did was with also in richmond california to looking at the different levels of chemicals, diesel exhaust in richmond which you would expect to be very different, and she's going to help us see if we can build a study, so this was a great thing that you brought to our attention. >> i start to think about it over the years but especially working in an airport and now in an actively working diesel pump station. >> and it's not something you have any control over, and that's the same kind of

fragmentation we're seeing at all levels, it's hard to make changes when jurisdictions move. >> but if i could get her contact information or something after the presentation, that would be great. >> okay, cool. >> i had two questions, one is you were just saying to use glass when you're cooking or microwave, what about -- i was told before that you could use plastic for the refrigerator or storage, are you saying avoid plastics all together for food storage, and then the second question is water bottles, say for instance i have a case of like costco water in my trunk that i just keep, is it the heat that's leeching stuff into the water or is the sun breaking down the plastic, what is getting leaked into the water, is it the bpa or other

toxins? >> these are great questions and they're kind of the same answer in a way. heat and light can both make plastic break down, either alone or in connection, i lived for a long time in arizona that if you leave your water in the car, it's cooking and getting exposed to light, but either one of those can lead chemicals to leak into the plastic, with bpa, we know, for instance, that it's hundreds of times more is leaked in with high heat than with low heat, it's just the nature of plastics. but the chemicals in most food contacts like that and your water bottles are usually a number 1, the main chemical in most of those is usually

relatively safe in the scheme of things, but then different companies will put different additives to give that plastic the property they want and so a study that came out in 2010 found that some of those additives can act like estrogen, so with the heat or with the uv light in particular, but even at room temperature, some of those additives that are estrogenic can get into the water and cause for instance cells that are sensitive to estrogen to grow more quickly which many breast cancers are, so limiting use like in your car, get some stainless steel or aluminum water bottles, fill those with the water and you can leaf -- leave those in the car, you can have three or four so they're go and grab ready, plastics in the refrigerator, it's a

personal decision, but sometimes i'll store stuff in plastic myself, but i kind of switched over to almost only glass just because it's easier to have one set of stuff ultimately. >> [inaudible]. >> obviously i'm not leaving it in there for months but i might leave a case in there, i might have that for a couple of weeks. >> studies they've done have usually been 72 to 108 hours, so relatively short-term, but also somewhat higher heat exposure than what we probably get most of the time in san francisco, so conditions are really variable and then it's usually controlled rather than kind of normal. yeah? >> so, in general where possible, staying away from plastic water bottles is not only making your life a little bit healthier, it's decreasing

our dependence on plastic which is more important as a broader environmental issue, but even water bottles, even if you leave them in a cold environment, you don't know where they've come from or they've been in ship holds which is really hot, just as a number one rule, if you smell something plastic don't drink out of it. >> that's good advice. >> i have two questions, they're a little bit unrelated but the first one goes on the scheme of plastic, so plastic wrap, plastic bags, you know, it's great to say we should all use glass but we know what's used out there is plastic, and it's reusable, you can come up with all these ways to avoid it but there's plastic everywhere and it's accessible and cheap, so plastic wrap gets used a lot, there aren't that many alternatives that can do what plastic wrap does, i don't use a lot of it and it's harder to

store things long-term and same question applies for the freezer, it's easier to put things in a freezer bag. >> so, a little tip for that is i do admit to using plastic bags, i reuse them and if something is not -- i don't use them for liquids and if something isn't somehow already kind of like a solid or whatever, parchment paper around that and then use the plastic just as the thing that keeps it from leak-proof or if i'm taking soup to work, i have my soup in a glass jar but i will throw it in plastic because i don't want it all over my backpack and there's also more stainless steel options which are a little more expensive but that's a one-time investment, just don't lose it, so a box of plastic bags, it

lasts me like three year, parchment paper, it's the layer that touches your food and then aluminum foil isn't really bad, but parchment paper is a good thing. >> plastics in kids toys and kids products, they're not really labeled, i don't find the same symbol on them and i do a lot of the reuse and recycle, but mostly reusing things so we have hand-me-downs and all kinds of toys that have been through many generations and i sometimes think about it, i can only worry so much about what my son puts in his mouth, but when you talk about chemicals, where do you start, besides i know wooden toys are best and that was the plan

originally, only wood in our house and glass and ceramics, that's all lovely in theory, it's not what happens unless you're a waldorf parent and you're strict and it's really your principle, so good will has a lot of plastic, so you know, anymore words on that, i realize it's a matter of what you can do, but -- >> i have not encountered some of those challenges because i'm not a parent but i have been around a lot of kids, important note is that in 2008, a law was passed that mra*s sites could not longer be used in kids toys , for right now, if you're buying new toys off the shelf, they're not going to have that

particular compound, plus skish shi ones, they're not going to have that, i know you have a small child, is when they're at that mouthing stage of putting everything in their mouth, that maybe be the time to be most concerned about the specifics when they get to the older stage where, you know, there's some pretty nifty plastic toys out there, let's get real, and i like that i had legos as a kid and those were plastic, you know, maybe that's when you loosen it up a little bit and make, you know, judicious decisions, but when they're putting everything in their mouths, you want to be the most careful about what that is, parents may have other added tips. >> [inaudible] because most of the toys for kids, we don't really check sometimes where they're made. >> it's for toys sold in the

united states, so regardless of where the manufacturer is, if they're sold in the u.s., they have to comply with those standards, other countries could well have different laws on their shelves and my guess would be vary from laws that would be more health protective to less fighters to join us. >> i have two questions, i'll keep them brief. we can't control where our fire houses are and our fire house is a block off the freeway, we do replace our h fact filters every five mother and is they're jet black when we replace them every three months, it is a big concern, how do we reduce our exposure when we're a block right off the freeway, we're bumper to bump traffic, and there are some fire houses that are literally underneath the freeway so how do we reduce

that exposure, air filters, if so, what kind of air filters? >> you're getting beyond our technical knowledge of our filtration, but you know, it might be somebody to consult with somebody with expertise in air filtration for indoor air of course, maybe replacing those filters more often, you know, some very basic things and again, i'm not an engineer, but wiping down surfaces with moistures rather than a rag captures that better, otherwise you're containing it better, thinking about some of the basic things you do in the home, i would consult someone who has experience in air

filters. >> [inaudible]. >> [inaudible] and my husband tells me they mop the apparatus floors every day because it's a diesel dust, i'm not sure if it's a common practice in fire houses, i was told someone in the fire department had developed cancer and they thought it was partly due to the diesel dust so they mop down every day, i know they probably sweep it but i don't know if mopping down is what 9 does, i don't know if this is company policy because i haven't been there. it is? okay. >> i have a question. my question is unrelated, talking about -- going back to the radiation and how bad it is for your body, so why do they recommend it as a treatment if someone has had cancer of various sorts?

>> kind of because it can be toxic to cells and -- so, if you target it, right, and then you're directing it to those very cancer cells that are growing very rapidly and are in a very focal area, then you are, you know, -- and it's at a higher dose than you're exposed to when you're screening, you're killing those cells and you're stopping their growth, so they're leveraging that particular feature of the radiation just as they do with chemotherapy which is drugs that we won't have to take unless we're needing to kill those cancer cells. >> [inaudible] radiation? >> it is very focused >> even though the [inaudible] i was talking about, if it's focused, why does everybody

leave the room? >> they're spending their 8 hour work day, and even if it's focused and there's a little bit of spread, radiation, as i understand, i'm not a physicist either, does reduce in its power the further away you get from it, right, that there's still, you know, if you're spending 8, 9 hours a day, you don't want that little bit added, they're getting better and better at in medical radiation when they're using it as a treatment, directing that ray to a more specific and localized area, but, you know, we do see in kids who are treated with radiation early -- for earlier childhood cancers that they can develop later life cancers as a result, now what's your trade-off there, the 20, 30 years of life they may have and maybe it's a treatable cancer they might get

later, but if you're an adult and getting na, you're weighing the costs and benefits. >> i just wanted to say one thing about the -- a couple of things about the diesel fuel, christine brings a great thing about where your fire house is located but what are our practices in the fire house, and are your extractors plugged in when the rigs are on or they're plugged in and blowing into the apparatus floor and with some of our standing orders with the ambulances, i know for sure they're supposed to stay on all the time at a scene, you're at a house in an hour and your rig is supposed to be on outside, that's addressing some of those policies within our department, it's like, well, we're told you have to leave the rig running to keep the power up or something, well, come on now,

you know, can't that not be changed a little bit, so i think that that is, you know, it's the diesel fuel we know is something cancer-causing, the other thing that came up with me is not a question but a comment with fire houses that i know and just starting to look and there's been some talk in our department, why do we have cell towers on our fire houses and there are some fire houses that have them and they're in places where it's exposing right where we sleep, why do -- why do we have that and is it a cost benefit thing, and just to start to ask some of those questions of our administration really, so that was it. >> so, i think that we are out of time, but this was wonderful, thank you for the rich questions and your attention and for bringing so many of you in here. >> i would like to thank bonnie and the breast cancer fund for coming and all of the local co-op that uses local

ingredients, we practice what we preach.

>> san francisco mayor lee is here to join us. this is especially special for us. about 14 months ago when we kicked off our first program lee was here. he helped cut the ribbon and launch with our first companies about 14 months ago, and i one thing i will say before you get up we thought long and hard where we wanted green star located and we knew we wanted it in silicon valley and we wanted to know where they were going to and we believe san francisco is on the way to being the heart and hub of silicon valley and where the heart and the leadership is and we will exciting where it's going and

please welcome mayor ed lee. >> thank you mitch. thank you so much. you know innovation is infectious. it's as infectious as giants fever. how about that? so let me tell you i have been excited ever since i came here and cut the ribbon with mitch a year ago and want to the get back here and see how everything was progressing and guess what? just over a year and a half ago when we first started here and when i started as mayor san francisco unemployment rate was 9.6% and last week six-point 9%. what a flip and a lot of it has to do with all the job creation you're doing right here and i want to congratulate you green start and all the companies starting out here. i like to be next and involved with all of the innovation going on. that is really infectious and i really

like that with this city. because there are 208 clean tech companies in san francisco and there are 83 investors and i think they're all here today. i think we earned the title of north american clean tech group and part of my administration that we support you and we engage with in how to do it better and you're part of my 17 points of job growth in the city. i ran on that as the new mayor in town. by the way i never have ran for public office before so you need to help me look good. i know they're going to work and as mitch said we are the ecosystem. this is how things are happening. this is why people are coming into san francisco. in addition we have a tourist sector going on, life

sciences going on. everybody is innovating in the right places and doing it here in san francisco and there is a strong spirit and we will continue growth and jobs everybody. we want to help everybody out and support each other and that comes to what we do here in san francisco. today i am announcing a new initiative and clean tech sf initiative which we launching with all of you. there are three part it is of this. the first part is we're working with the california clean energy fund. i know jeff anderson is here today as part of them and he's going to be partners with us, and he's partners in every branch that we doing. the first thing we're doing as clean tech sf we will establish innovation zones in san francisco. what does that mean? we asked last time when

we were here in san francisco and how can we help? perhaps we can help with the resources that the city doesn't use to the highest use. let's take our space. we have a lot of assets under utilized. how can we allow the demonstrations that you're having today have a real field test for what they are, and if we could allow ourselves to be very flexible with our leases, our spaces we will allow ourselves to do that with partnership with green start and incubate some of the demonstrationos our property, let's take what we're doing specifically. with our sfpuc, with the department of the environment and melanie is here today and doing a great job with our mos connie center and i know we have a lot of panels up there already but doesn't fill all the roof tops and there is new

technology coming out all the time. we have been challenged in the solar technology arena because traditional technology has heavy weight technology that always challenged the integrity of roof tops, and moscone is the one we found and let that be for one of these companies and light ultralight technology and use, cheaper way of getting solar out there and we're going to allow them to demonstrate their product on top of our mos connie roof and that is an example we're doing in utilizing all of the agency's cooperations and make sure the start ups can use real testing sites in the city. that is thanks to the hardand kelly and the manager at puc and barbara hale and the second

thing we're going to do is take a page out of what we're doing with clean tech and biotech life sciences. you see what mission bay is doing. they have for the last ten years building up a ecosystem of pharmaceutical companies and san francisco medical center and integrated around with the research teams to form a very strong research center and because of that center more and more companies around the world are locating there because they want to be next to the laboratory innovators. they're sharing laboratories, sharing scientists and collaborating and all with solutions about the future of medicine. taking a page out of that why couldn't we do the same thing with clean tech? we want to invite institutions like our california puc, our san francisco puc, our department of the environment, organizations

and private institutions like sun run or pg&e to potentially create the network of their innovative sites and their innovative divisions to work together and potentially in a physical location or just begin networking first, and start working with the major universities and their research entities on their sites so we can start anchoring these institutions within san francisco and create another ecosystem of anchoring institutions. that proved successful in the delivery of pharmaceutical answers to medical challenges. i think it will prove to be helpful here to have them focial exciting center to come and look at and draw the attention i think of even more start ups, and the third part of this clean sf initiative is make

sure that we do everything possible to support clean tech start ups. we can do that with partnership with the clean energy fund and our departments and their funds for grants and help green start with all of these start ups and make sure they know we're supporting them in every way possible, and through that partnership we will come up with even more ideas. this continues to be the innovation capital in the world and i will put that in context and melanie asked me to remind all of you. there is no other city in the united states if not the world that can say they accomplished goals of 80% of all of our garage is being repsyched in san francisco. we will get to 100% in our lifetimes and this i grant you because we have innovators here and people committed. we have investors here to help us with the new ideas. this last 20% of

recycling is going to be the hardest but the most enjoyable. this city will continue to innovate. we will embrace clean technologies. we we will certificate green start and demonstrations that we will see today and october is innovation month and gratifying for those and happy clean tech day in san francisco. thank you very much. [applause] >> it is awesome to have the mayor announce that right here at green start. we are thrilled to be a part of that. it's true a year ago mayor lee asked "what can we do to help?" and we said we have lots of companies that want to test pilot things and deploy things and how can san francisco be a part of that and

to see this come together so quickly is incredibly rewarding and testament to the leadership you're providing and san francisco is lucky to have you as our mayor. thank you >> okay, if we can have everybody take their seats. okay, good morning. we're going to get warm because you're all together. but we really want to welcome all of you today to the opening of our new city, new bridge hiv research facility. let's give it a hand. [cheering and applauding] >> one of the greatest honors that i have and barbara garcia, the director of health and one of the greatest honors i have is the critical staff that i get to work with.